WASHINGTON--Illinois Democratic Senate nominee Alexi Giannoulias will face the editorial boards of the Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago Tribune on Wednesday to answer questions about his connections to his family-owned troubled Broadway Bank.

Giannoulias, the state treasurer, has to factor into his campaign the potential for the bank to fail in the coming weeks as his GOP rival Rep. Mark Steven Kirk (R-Ill.), makes the Giannoulias tenure at the bank as a loan officer a central part of his campaign. On Tuesday, the Kirk campaign sent out a memo titled, "Mounting questions surrounding Alexi Giannoulias' risky lending practices take center stage in Illinois Senate race."

My Chicago Sun-Times colleague Abdon Pallasch points out that Giannoulias has been answering questions about the "the loans for four years, ever since his first run for office. Never gleefully or enthusiastically. He often tries to beg off questions by noting he has not been at the bank in four years. But over the years, when pressed, he has admitted he made loans to mobsters and said if he had known they were mobsters he would not have made the loans. Watch video of Giannnoulias answering questions in December before the Sun-Times editorial board at the bottom of the Pallasch report.